Loading summary
Transcript16 lines
- [00:00]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
This is an ad by BetterHelp.
- [00:02]
Mickey Jo
Did I talk too much? Can't I just let it go? I was thinking so much.
- [00:11]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
Take a breath. You're not alone. Let's talk about what's going on. Counseling helps you sort through the noise with qualified professionals, and online therapy makes it convenient. See if it's for you. Visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of online therapy and let life feel free better.
- [00:32]
Momentous Ad Voice
By this point in the year, routines are real, not aspirational. And when it comes to supplements you're taking every day, trust really matters. But choosing the right supplements can be confusing, especially in a low regulation space, which means a lot of products cut corners, skip testing or don't fully disclose what's inside. That's exactly why I choose Momentous. They've become the high trust brand in a low trust category. They weren't satisfied with the industry standard, so they built the Momentus standard. Their commitment to doing things the right way, not the easy way. What truly sets Momentous apart is their testing and transparency. Every product is independently certified by NSF for sport, meaning it's tested for contaminants, heavy metals, banned substances and verified for label accuracy. So you always know exactly what you're putting in your body. And if a product doesn't meet their standard, it never hits the shelves. Right now, Momentous is offering our listeners up to 35% off your first order with promo code Acast. Head to livemomentous.com and use promo code Acast for up to 35% off your first Order. That's livemomentous.com promo code Acast.
- [01:46]
Workday/LinkedIn Ad Voice
Could AI help you do more of what you love? Workday is the next gen erp, powered by AI that actually knows your business. We help you handle the have to DOS so you can focus on the can't wait to dos. It's a new workday.
- [02:02]
Mickey Jo
The first time I saw this play, around a decade ago, I was studying for a maths degree and I suspected that I loved it, even though I couldn't completely grasp it. Now, seeing it again in 2026, I know I do. But I'm also, for the first time in a while, palpably nervous to begin this review because no matter what I can say, I can't aspire to the wit and brilliance and intellect of the play itself. It's an intimidating thing to try convey. At the same time, though, I am incredibly eager to share with you why I enjoy this piece of theatre so much. So let's Talk about Arcadia at the Old Vic. But before we do, an introduction to me. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel or hello to those of you listening to this review on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a theatre critic and content creator here on social media and recently I went to the Old Vic Theatre in London to see their brand new production of Tom Stoppard's Arcade, a revival which has sadly proved unexpectedly timely due to the extraordinary playwright's passing at the end of last year, at which point this production was already programmed for the Old Vic Theatre, so the whole thing has become sort of inadvertently auspicious. It's also lovely that it's happening at this particular theatre, the Old Vic being a venue where Tom Stoppard's plays have been produced before, where I believe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead made its world premiere. I saw the real thing there not too long ago and last week I headed back to see our Arcadia. Plenty to say about this play, about this production, about the way that it's staged in the Old Vic's current in the round configuration, about the notion of whether or not this play is too academic, too intellectual in a way that is off putting, as well as why it's so celebrated as a piece of theater, and whether this production and its performances lives up to that genius. If you have seen this or any other production of Arcadia previously, share all of your thoughts and feelings in the comments section down below. And if you would like to hear more of my reviews, then make sure to subscribe here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. You can also keep up with everything I share across social media as well as in publications if I happen to by subscribing to my free weekly substack email newsletter. You can find the link to that in the top of this video's description. But for now, let us talk about Arcadia. So to my mind, not only one of Tom Stoppard's greatest plays, but also one of the greatest pieces of theatre ever written. When I first saw this, it ticked an awful lot of boxes for me, but was also, for that self, same reason, frustrating. Because you have to understand I went to see this when I was at university and I had been in lectures. That afternoon I went to the new Victoria Theatre in Woking to see a touring production. I think it was the English touring theatre that was producing this revival of Arcadia, knowing very little about it other than its legacy and its importance. It was maybe the second Tom Stoppard play I'd ever seen in my life. What I didn't anticipate was there being so much mathematics in it, and that some of the concepts being discussed on stage around the laws of thermodynamics would actually mirror lectures that I had had that afternoon in classical dynamics. Now, ultimately, and to cut a long life story short, I got too distracted by theatre during my university years to ever finish the maths degree. But it's a time I will always be transported back to by Arcadia, and not just because it's a piece of theatre that concerns mathematics in a way, but also because the entire attitude of the thing is so academic, it is so studious, it is so much about study and academia and eventually this idea of why we bother to try and learn things, to try and find answers, whether that's in the field of scientific research or historical pursuits. As Stoppard writes antagonistic dialogue between feuding academics, he is considering what it is about the pursuit of truth, and truth itself, that even matters. And in today's day and age, full of fake news and misinformation, I think that's more important than ever when we are living amidst a disregard for science and history. Both of those things are really cherished in Arcadia. And despite having that mathematical root into the story at the time, there was something about the sensibility of Arcadia that I sort of resented, and there was a sense of inaccessibility because I couldn't quite understand the whole thing. There are so many little historical footnotes, there are so many details. It is about semi complex mathematics. It is also about science, it is also about history and poetry. It is also about landscape gardening. It is like almost every other Tom Stoppard play, in its way, about philosophy. He was this remarkable intellect who liked to bring all of these different concepts, all of these different ideas from different fields into one piece of drama. And Arcadia holds them all magnificently. Anyway, that's some of my history with the play. Let's talk about Arcadia itself. It premiered in the early 1990s at the then Royal National Theatre and has been heavily lauded in the years since. It feels important that I try and convey some sort of a synopsis to you. Those who already know the play can perhaps understand why I've been building up to this. But here we go. Arcadia is set entirely in one room of a large country estate called Sidley park in Derbyshire. Only we alternately see scenes within that room taking place in two different timelines. In the earlier timeline in which we begin, which is in the very early 19th century, the wealthy residents, their guests and their staff are going about various different aspects of daily life. Everything from deciding together the style in which the garden is to be redone by the ambitious forward thinking gardener, to discovering who may have had a secret tryst in the greenhouse. And in truth, Arcadia is a play about science, It's a play about mathematics, it's a play very much about history. It's also a play about romance and sex, an aspect perhaps a little more neglected by this very intelligent new production at the old fic, but we'll get to that in just a moment. Our principal focus of the earlier period is the tutoring of a teenage girl, Thomasina, by Septimus Hodge, a character who, enduringly, and to my shame, I do think is one of the most attractive in theatre. And it's nothing to do explicitly with the actors who have played him. I just find the man very convincing and honestly, that says more about me than anything else. At the play's commencement, Septimus, who is witty and charming and sarcastically evasive, is teaching the inquiring mind of Thomasina about Fermat's Last Theorem. Only what she wants to know is the definition of the term carnal embrace, which she has overheard some of the staff talking about. It transpires that Septimus was spotted enjoying a passionate encounter with one of the married guests at Sidley Park. Thomasina, who is deeply fond of her tutor, seems to be growing suspicious of this, but is also hugely impatient for knowledge and understanding, both in terms of real world situations, as she is set to become a young woman of wealth eligible for marriage, but also far bigger questions about the complex workings of the universe. There's a conversation very early on in the play in which Thomasina asks Septimus if she's the first person to consider. Inspired by the notion of being able to swirl together the ingredients of rice pudding, but not swirl them apart again, evidencing that the world moves towards disorder and entropy. Whether it would in fact be theoretically possible, if the world were to stand still, to plot everything that exists in the world as it is at that exact moment, and on an atomic level, therefore predict everything that was going to happen for the rest of time. The mathematical route into which is the notion that you can plot shapes on a graph. Meanwhile, Septimus is flirting with her mother, trying to talk his way out of a jewel challenge. And everyone's in the garden shooting an awful lot of grouse. Alongside all of this, we also depict a modern timeline, one which is now sort of rooted in the late 80s or early 90s when the play was originally published. Generations later, an entirely new cohort of characters are in the same room in Sidley park, trying to answer questions about what may have taken place all of those decades ago, including, but not limited to the identity of a hermit who lived in the hermitage, one which we have just before learned is about to be built in the early 19th century, as well as the possible presence of one Lord Byron and the possibility that he may have shot and killed a man before fleeing the country, which would constitute a major historical discovery. In these scenes, feuding academics disagree about the diligence and rigor of their comparative study. While the house's new residents go about their own business. For one of them, Valentine, this means study of his own as a mathematician, he is attempting to utilize years worth of statistical records kept in the game books, all of the grouse that have been shot over various years at Sidley park in order to try and see statistical patterns. With the discovery of young Thomasina's incomplete research coming together with some of his ideas to form a conversation about mathematical iteration. All of which is quite possibly beginning to sound a little complicated. And I promise as a former maths teacher, I will do my best to explain it. What I do want to tell you though, is towards the end of the play, we have another moment in which a character in the more modern timeline wonders whether they are the first person to conceive of an idea just like Thomasino was almost two centuries before. Only this time, they are questioning whether the thing that makes the world unpredictable and flies in the face of Thomasina's idea that you could map out every single atom in the world and know exactly what was going to happen for the rest of time based on their atomic movement. The thing that disrupts all of that and throws the whole system out of order is sexual attraction and people behaving in a way that is illogical and contrary to their imperatives because of romantic ideals. They remark that sex is the attraction that Newton left out. Let me unpack all of this a little more as we continue to discuss the themes.
- [12:10]
Workday/LinkedIn Ad Voice
Could AI help you do more of what you love? Workday is the next gen ERP powered by AI that actually knows your business. We help you handle the have to dos so you can focus on the can't wait to do's. It's a new workday.
- [12:25]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
BetterHelp Online Therapy bought this 30 second ad to remind you right now, wherever you are, to unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath in and out feels better right, that's 15 seconds of self care. Imagine what you could do with more. Visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of therapy. No pressure, just help. But for now, just relax.
- [13:08]
Mickey Jo
Of the play. Now, I don't often make reference to other reviews while I am delivering my own, but there has been some discussion about the extent to which this play is inaccessible because of the complex mathematics involved. And to that end I would like to try and explain it a little bit to you if I can. And I am not a degree level mathematician, but I was for several years a teacher and I will do my best. So one of the things that Thomasina talks about is the idea that the entire world, if its scale weren't so vast, could be plotted with equations. This being because you can plot equations on a graph. For example, for the equation y equals 2x plus 3, for an x value of 2, the value of y would be 7. So you plot at 2 and 7 on your graph and you continue to plug in other numbers and you can plot the shape of a graph. And this is done often with lines, with curves, with parabola. And Tomasina points out, if this can be done for a bell, which indeed it can, why not for a blue bell? And it's a huge extrapolation, but the result of a fascinating inquisitive mind decades ahead of her time, centuries ahead of her time. There's a really terrific line in response to this. Amidst a conversation about science and nature that is armed thus, God could only make a cabinet, Thomasina later, like I said, is exploring the idea of iteration, which is a series of sums repeated again and again and again and again and again as you whittle down to a final result or head closer and closer to one. One of the things I actually did pay attention to in my first year at university, and they explain these well enough in the play that you don't have to have some prior understanding of them. I think it certainly helps, but it's also valuable to understand the meaning behind the process. You don't need mathematics to get to the play's answers. But there is a beauty, I think, in recognizing that what Thomasina is doing, circling an answer and whittling her way down to it, only she can't because it requires so many thousands of sums and has only been really made possible via computers and calculators and she simply ran out of paper. But also time and patience. It's the same idea, though the concepts seem to be so far apart from each other that is being explored by the play's literary historians. They are circling the same conversations, the same ideas, the same moments in history, again and again, approaching them from different angles, repeatedly studying these things to try and determine the exact value of the truth to however many metaphorical decimal places? And that, I think, is one of the really great things about this play, the way in which it brings together these presumably irreconcilable concepts. There are these terrific parallels between literary discoveries and scientific achievements. Towards the end, there is a conversation about how each of them is this celebrated thing until it is disproven, as well as the thrill of living at a time when everything that humanity thought they knew about the universe or a particular chapter is suddenly proven wrong. And there is this new frontier of possibility. All of this born out of Stoppard's absolute fascination with these seemingly trivial historic details. I mean, the amount of exchanges about landscape gardening. He displayed, this extraordinary curiosity about these aspects of human history. And so who else but Stoppard could have written these loaded exchanges between these academics, this battle of egos on the subject of gardening techniques inspired by classical works? And if this still sounds woefully inaccessible, it's the way he writes about it and the way that he conveys passion. I get a comment occasionally on here from people who sort of stumble onto things I'm talking about and say they know nothing about theatre, or perhaps even care little for theatre, but they just like listening to people talk about subjects that they are passionate about. And Arcadia, I think, is an incredibly satisfying piece of theatre, not just for historic gardeners and classicists and historians and mathematicians, but for anyone who wants to witness that kind of curiosity and fascination. Beautifully rendered. And it isn't a play about gardens, it isn't a play about mathematics. It's a play about the concept of knowledge, this quest for answers, the reason behind it and the importance of it. It's almost in tribute to the concept of knowledge and the custody that we have of it within humanity. Certainly, I think you will have a more layered appreciation of this play if you are familiar with a lot of the names they throw around and the ideas and the fields that they are talking about. But I don't think it's necessarily essential, and it's inarguably, to a certain extent, pretentious. This is high art. It is inherently academic and all of the detail and the poetry and the algebra is only really intended as the backdrop to the relationships and dynamics, the of between these characters. Arcadia is really this perfectly balanced set of scales supporting at the Same time this Jane Austen or Bridgerton esque romp and a multidisciplinary TED Talk, the balance of which in this production I find very interesting. Let's talk about Arcadia at the old Vic in 2020.
- [18:24]
Workday/LinkedIn Ad Voice
Could AI help you do more of what you love? Workday is the next gen ERP powered by AI that actually knows your business. We help you handle the haptic to DOS so you can focus on the can't wait to dos. It's a new work day.
- [18:38]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
This is an ad by BetterHelp.
- [18:40]
Mickey Jo
Did I talk too much? Can I just let it go?
- [18:49]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
Take a breath. You're not alone. Let's talk about what's going on. Counseling helps you sort through the noise with qualified professionals and online therapy makes it convenient. See if it's for you. Visit betterhelp.com randompodcast for 10% off your first month of online therapy and let life feel better.
- [19:12]
Mickey Jo
26. So we have said plenty about a play that merits some serious explanation. This production from Carrie Cracknell. This revival is a very interesting one. The set has been designed by Alex Eales. I love the way that it's configured. I was initially disappointed, I tell you, when I heard that Arcadia was coming back. But at a time when the Old Vic was in its in the round configuration, which is something it's opted in and out of over the past decade or so, it is generally speaking an end on Proscenium Theatre, but occasionally they move the playing space down towards the stalls and they erect onstage seating behind it. And I was a little bit grumpy when I heard about this. This because I like Arcadia an awful lot. I was excited to see it again and I wanted to see a grand, historic drawing room. I wanted a view out to the garden. They're constantly talking about this garden. It's like Chekhov's garden at this point. They are constantly making reference to it. A lot happens out there, but we never see it. We never venture out beyond the doors. We only ever allude to it. It sort of situates us to an extent alongside the more modern characters who are trying to figure out what happened because we, the audience, are kept purposefully in the dark about a lot of details, styles for a deliberate amount of time. However, I needn't have worried because I really like the way that this has been staged. Not just because we're in this historic playing space encircling this incredibly thoughtful, carefully played piece of drama, which I think is just incredibly special, but also because the set itself is this little circular stage with Lighting above, designed by Guy Hoare, that is indicative of. Of constellations and a sort of a planetary system, but also subatomic aspects as well. The stage itself rotates in a way that feels familiar of an atom. It makes the playing space feel like the nucleus of the auditorium. And one of the things that this very intimate rendering of Arcadia can achieve very well is the crossover between these different timelines. And for the most part, the scenes in each period are extended and we then shift to another long scene in the other. But there are these moments of beautiful crossover. There's a real thrill when they are making discoveries as presented to us at the same time, about a leaf. And to have all of these characters nestled within the circumference of this stage, passing each other as the whole thing is slowly turning. I think that's gorgeously staged. It is, generally speaking, a sort of a hands off revival in terms of. Of concept. And there isn't that much being foisted onto the material. When the material is this celebrated, this rich and this dense. I think the best bet is simply to stage the thing and allow it to sing with comparatively few bells and whistles. And I think as a result of that, the real brilliance, wit and intellect of the piece absolutely soars. I wonder if we don't lose a little something of its romance and its sensuality. There is a moment in the second act, an encounter between two characters who have been sort of sniffing around each other flirtatiously, that is almost steamier than a Bridgerton episode. Played by Seamus as Septimus Hodge and Fiona Button as Lady Croom. Brilliant work from the two of them throughout the play, each of them witty and knowing and just very well crafted. Isis Hainsworth is also brilliant as the young genius Thomas Cena, playing more than anything else on this frustration, the ideas of what she is and isn't, as a young woman at that time, allowed to be taught about that. She can study and learn all of this algebra and classical Latin, but she can't find out anything else about sex. Which brings us to the performances in the more modern chapter, which are decidedly more overt and outspoken and confrontational. Prasanna Puanaraja plays a professor named Bernard who arrives at this house, discovers an academic already there whose book he has tarnished with a discrediting review. And we explore an awful lot of academic misogyny through him. But it is wittily played the subject of his dismissive insults. Hannah, played by Layla Farzad, maintains the upper ground throughout and is, I think, my favorite performance from the entire play. And it's subtle, it's not particularly flashy because he flies into more moods than she does. She remains on sort of a similar emotional level, but it's this utter commitment to her study and to the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of it. She has this beautiful moment in which she puts down the idea of an afterlife and getting to finally find out the truth about the things that they are considering. And she says something to the effect of if all the answers are in the back of the book, then there's no point searching for them. And the romance of the whole thing could burn a little brighter. There are moments in the introductory scenes where I thought the punch lines and the wit of Stop Art ought to be a little more pacey. But the whole thing is undeniably brilliant. And to just really cherish the writing seems like the best thing to do in the months following Stoppard's death, to simply allow the material to shine as we all sit around it and listen attentively. It's one of those plays where you do really need to lean in in order to fully benefit from its riches. And ultimately, depending on perhaps on the life that you've led and your world view, you will either see the point of the whole thing or you won't. But its perspective on knowledge and history and academia and landscape gardening and algebra notwithstanding, it is funny and it is romantic and it is, I think, very exciting. And I urge you to check it out for yourselves. Those have been my thoughts, thoughts on Arcadia, currently playing at the Young Vic. Go and see this production. You can get a program and you can read up on some of the concepts that are discussed. There's a lovely glossary of terms here which I think will be very helpful, talking about everything from Romanticism to the Library of Alexandria or iterated algorithms. This is my second time around the Roundabout with Arcadia, as it were, and I enjoyed it immensely. It really cemented it as one of my favourite plays. And I think this is a delightful production. Not necessarily a definitive, not necessarily offering, show stopping, standout performances, but I think comprised of a really well balanced ensemble cast who are each giving robust, thoughtful, charming performances. At which point that is everything that I have to say about this play. I hope that I have done it in some small way justice, but more so than anything else. I'm particularly eager to hear what everybody else thinks. It sort of divided critics to a certain extent. Almost everyone agrees that it's a terrific work, but people don't necessarily have the same opinion about this production. So if you've seen Arcadia at the Old Vic over the past few weeks, I would love to know what you thought. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this review. If there are any other productions that you would like to hear my reviews of, let me know in the comments section down below. And stay tuned because there are many more already on their way. Thank you so much for listening to this. I hope that you enjoyed. If you did, make sure to subscribe right here on YouTube or follow me on podcast platforms. You can also sign up for my weekly substack for an overview of everything that I have seen and done in the last week. You can find that link in the description of this video. And as always, I have been Mickey Joe and I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe Comment.
- [26:56]
Workday/LinkedIn Ad Voice
As a small business owner, you don't really get to clock out early. Your business is on your mind 24 7. So when it's time to hire, you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That partner is LinkedIn jobs when you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. It's super easy to post your job for free, share it with your network, and manage qualified candidates all in one place. LinkedIn can even help you write your job description and get it in front of the right people. And promoted jobs get three times more qualified applicants. 72% of small businesses say LinkedIn helps them find higher quality candidates and you can double your reach just by adding the hashtag hiringframe to your profile photo. Find out why more than 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com jobsearch that's LinkedIn.com J-O B S E A R C H Terms and conditions apply. Could AI help you do more of what you love? Workday is the next gen ERP powered by AI that actually knows your business. We help you handle the have to dos so you can focus on the can't wait to do's. It's a new workday.
- [28:10]
BetterHelp/MeUndies Ad Voice
Underwear drawers are like the Wild west of wardrobes. You never know what pair you're going to pull out or what shape it's in. It's time to upgrade your underwear drawer with the buttery soft comfort of meundies. Meundies signature fabric is as soft as a warm hug from your favorite sweater. Plus, it's breathable and oh so comfy making it ideal for all day wear. Get 20% off your first order, plus free shipping at MeUndies.com acast Enter promo code acast that's MeUndies.com acast Code acast.